When bee balm — aka wild bergamot — comes fully into its flowering self, it has a bad hair day. In fact, it has one bad hair day after another once it blooms.
It is extremely attractive to butterflies. Below, a fritillary1 and two taxiles skippers (female above and male below) nectar on a single bee balm blossom.
It is also quite beautiful to my eyes. One reason, of course, is because of all the butterflies it attracts. Another is that I love the colors of both its flowers and its leaves, especially the way the pink of its flowers carries over into the leaves (or vice versa).
Most compelling of all, though, is the way it looks before it blooms (above and below). Whereas the blossoms all look pretty much the same, each flower seems to be quite unique before it’s completely developed.
I love looking at the small buds as they form, and am continually fascinated by all the tiny hairs surrounding them.2
Technically, only members of the aster family are considered flower composites.3 Bee balm is clearly a composite in spirit though, with a plethora of individual flowers in each blossom, allowing multiple butterflies to nectar at the same time.
Fritillary species are nearly as hard for me to identify as skippers are. This one is either a great-spangled or northwestern fritillary. I have no idea how people tell them apart.
No wonder they have so many bad hair days later in life.
I’ve posted on multiple occasions about flower composites. The idea that a single flower could have many more within it totally fascinates me.
Such beauty!
💜